Thursday, May 31, 2012

Reliving My Youth

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10 years ago hubby and I met at the ice rink ... I was a young 19 year old totally bessotted with the big burly ice hockey player with the nice smile.

10 years on and I can embarrasingly say I am still totally besotted but obviously alot less young. I also seem to have lost any skating abilities I once had.

Hubby was feeling a bit the same - about an hour in he looked at me and said .... we used to do this for 4 hours? Im bored and buggered after 50 minutes!

Lets just say we both slept extremely well that night and the next day woke up a little bit stiffer than normal!

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Flooring - Check

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So my floor is now done and it looks amazing - its not too dark but has the most amazing colours running through it I just can say enough good things about it. It also has a texture to it which ... while not exactly wood like is lovely to walk along.

The pictures are at night so you may have to wait until the weekend for more .... accurate colours (Im blaming winter for allowing me less daylight to admire the house) but overall I am extremely happy with how it has turned out.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Flooring Has Started ...

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So obviously my upstairs carpet has been laid and I totally completely love it but as for the downstairs ...we were sorting out our budget and decided the smart thing to do would be to wait a few more weeks and then order it and get it installed.

Now ... I received a call from the owners of the flooring store the other day (I must say the amount of time I spent agonising over my floors we have become quite good friends) and the owners wanted to know when I was planning on ordering the floor. I advised them that we were waiting a few weeks and they turned around and said that the prices were about to go up so they were just going to go ahead and order it so we didnt get stung with the higher price. Not only that but that they were going to lay it straight away for us and that we could sort out payment later as originally planned.

How often do you come across people who go out of their way for you? These lovely people have gone above and beyond to make our life easier .... not just easier but better.

So yesterday the floor was skimmed and ready for my new flooring which should be fitted at some point today. Now I dont know if you remember but we have gone for a commercial grade vinyl plank floor. The great thing about this product is its so low maintenance, no problems with water, no fading from the sun and no real problems with scratching.

Cant wait to show you pictures tomorrow!

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Monday, May 28, 2012

Coming Together

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Ok so things are starting to finally come together over at "the house"

It's odd because we have been admiring it from afar for so long now that we finally have the keys its almost a surreal thing .... putting the key in the lock, making a mess and unpacking boxes.

I believe I told you I ordered these lovely little clock door knobs ... well they are on my very new cabinets. At first with the old knobs on it almost felt like they were Balinese inspired but such a small change makes the world of difference to the look of the room. I can't wait for my mattress to arrive just so I can dress the bed!
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Friday, May 25, 2012

Brought A Bed!!

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Oh yes, I brought a bed .... a lovely chocolate brown leather bed and its truely heavenly.

This is my first real furniture buy and I am extremely excited about it - what do you think - does this still fit into my overall style?

The picture above is actually alot lighter than the leather on the bed, its a dark chocolate leather and totally heavenly.


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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Excitement PLUS!

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Some things just get your blood pumping ... some things put butterflies in your tummy and you cant think of anything else BUT said item.

A bright red sale sign does it for me baby ... oh yeah .... SALE! There are quite a few items that need buying and although they may not be "Priorities" how often do you get BIG RED SALE signs pop up in your inbox when you need them!

On another side note - the planter box is now finished and I must say our temporary letterbox is one of those slick design peices you just have to love. My favorite bit of the handwritten numbers in blue marker pen!

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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Carpet

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Well my carpet has finally been fitted. I say finally quite loosely because obviously we have only had the keys for 4 days but its done. The entire upstairs and the theatre and sitting room downstairs are now "move in ready" Its an exciting time watching everything finally be finished.

My poor carpet layers had to negotiate a lovely narrow staircase, the owner of the carpet company stressing about my and not damaging my walls and hubby running around taking photos for me sitting at work stressing over it all.

Obviously my favorite room in the house so far is the Theatre with its lovely dark walls but now that the dark shag pile has been added I have to say, this room is awesome!!! The first thing I did was take off my shoes and lay on the floor!!

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I am so unbelievably happy over the whole thing I just had to share!

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Monday, May 21, 2012

Behind the Scenes Work

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Its quite frustrating to actually work your ass off all weekend and not really see any tangible progress on the house. Its all the behind the scenes stuff that isn't fun but is totally necessary.

Hubby pruned all of the neighbours trees which I have to admit turned out to be a big job. I on the other hand spent the day sealing the garage concrete floor. Its one of those jobs that doesn't seem to have much value on the face of it. It looks the same afterward (except slightly darker) and it doesn't really "do" anything for me but its totally worth it in the long run .... or at least that's what I have been told.

Sealing the floor will be a benefit in two ways. Firstly it will actually seal in the dust so we will never have to worry about tramping white powder over my lovely dark wood floors. Secondly it will actually protect it from future staining. Ok so I get it its great, but I just want to start doing "forward" stuff. Stuff that you can see and feel and really understand they are doing something good!
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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sorry I Wasn't Around on Friday ......

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I was far far to busy ..... PICKING UP MY KEYS!!!

Oh yes, I am now the proud owner of a 2 storey home full of concrete and dust!

It was an exciting day finally getting the keys to our house, we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and I couldn't stop bouncing around excited with how wonderful it was. They gave us a lovely little gift basket and even though we all seem to have building horror stories I don't really have anything negative to say about our builder.

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The next day of course dawned with me realising its actually pretty intimidating getting the keys. There is so much to do and I am responsible for everything, I have to balance the budget, I have to organise the tradespeople and I have to make all the decisions. I don't have a supervisor I can trust to oversea everything .... the house is now our responsibility!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Drama's and Solutions

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So things are going well and we have to say the builder has been awesome but there is always going to be some things that are just .... crap.

Hubby found one on Monday. We have a small planter box build into the house. What we didn't realise until the "rains came" is that they put it under the main slab with no real way for the water to escape .... oh yes but it does get better. They also made sure that one of the downpipes that drains the main front roof falls into this watertight flowerbed!

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In order to actually make it work we had to put a step up onto the pathway from the driveway .... Surprisingly adding yet another level makes it all very interesting so I'm happy but the extra work hubby had to do for a really simple task .... stupid!

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2 days of grinding the slab and cutting through the concrete means we now finally have the drain running into the soak well.

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You may ask ... why would this not have been picked up in all the detailed design drawings but downpipes will be at plumbers discretion.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Walls of Progress

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It amazes me just how happy bricks all stuck together can make me. It is finally starting to feel like a house as opposed to a building site. Although the space feels smaller its our space and its now clearly defined and just waiting for us to make it into something.

Hubby and I decided last night that we were going to stick with our "one thing at a time" plan. We want every moment in our house to be special, we are currently agonising over the letterbox design and you know what ... that's ok! We are allowed to want everything to be perfect - we expect every moment to be perfect and although we know that this takes time ... we are alright with that.

So the house is going well - the wall is going well and it should be hours / days before we get the keys as opposed to weeks.

Bring On Handover!!!

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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Frustration is ....

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Waiting ever so impatiently for your house to finish. 2 weeks ago I did final inspection and 2 weeks ago I was excited about finally getting my long awaited keys. 2 weeks ago I wanted to get started on all the little things that need to be done before we move in.

2 weeks later I am frustrated .... grumpy and more than ready to get my keys.

Hurry up Mr Builder, I want my house, I want to move my stuff and unpack boxes and make it mine!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Hockey Has Come To Perth

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Ice hockey ... yes ice hockey has come to Perth.

My husband has actually been playing hockey since I met him ... and probably before but ehhh. Ok so ice hockey in Perth was a small very little known sport. There were no spectators and to be honest most people didn't even realise we had ice hockey leagues.

So for various reasons hubby has not played for the last three years but this year he started again .... and getting back into the whole social aspect of it I was surprised with how much it has changed. On Saturday we actually watched a state game - WA vs Canberra and it was a really good close game with a penalty shoot out and fans cheering. For me this is mind blowing, ice hockey has come to Perth!!!

Now don't get me wrong, its no NHL with cheer leaders and entertainers but hey, this is great!!!


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Monday, May 7, 2012

Toning It Down

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I think it might be difficult for me to take my fabulous ideas like the above image and then tone it down so that you can live with it not just now but maybe even 5 years from now.

I love love love the eccentricity of the above image but to be honest I am not sure how to make that work in my ultra modern house.

This image from Samantha from Black Velvet Chair (here) made me think that perhaps it might be possible. I have added a couple more that kind of have the same feel, relaxed formality??? If that even exists.
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